Universal’s ‘Bride of Frankenstein’ Reboot May Not Be Dead After All

Welp, it’s alive… sorta. Just a few months ago, Universal seemingly pulled the plug on their Dark Universe of monster movie reboots. Back in October, the studio delayed Bill Condon’s Bride of Frankensteinreboot, halting production and wiping it from the release schedule. Then just a month later, the two creatives set to spearhead the massive cinematic universe, Alex Kurtzman and Chris Morgan, both exited the project. It appeared that the so-called Dark Universe, intended to be kicked off by last summer’s flop The Mummy, was without a pulse. But now a new report suggests it may in fact be alive with Bride of Frankenstein potentially back in the game.

The first sign of life comes from a report via Omega Underground, revealing that Bride of Frankenstein has assembled a production team. According to the site, Condon will be joined by his Beauty and the Beast team, including cinematographer Tobias A. Schleissler, production designer Sarah Greenwood, and costume designer Jacqueline Durran, and the film will reportedly be scored by Carter Burwell. There’s no news yet on when production may begin in London, but if Gal Gadot is still set to star as the titular female monster – Gadot replaced Angelina Jolie, previously expected to lead – Universal will have to work around her schedule for Wonder Woman 2 and Justin Kurzel’s Nazi thriller Ruin. Javier Bardem, previously set to play the iconic re-animated corpse, is also still said to be onboard.

The Dark Universe was originally going to follow The Mummy with Bride of Frankenstein, then unleash a flurry of classic monster remakes, including the Johnny Depp-led The Invisible Man, plus Creature from the Black Lagoonand Van Helsingrevamps. There’s no word on whether replacements for Kurtzman and Morgan have been found to lead the Dark Universe, or if one will exist beyond Bride. If Universal is smart, they’ll wait to see how the Condon rebootperforms, and whether it’s any better than the plane crash wreckage that was Tom Cruise’s Mummy, before moving forward with any other monsters. Or if they’re really smart, they’ll just hire Guillermo del Toro, master of contemporary monster movies, to make all their reboots, or at least let him make the Frankenstein remake of his dreams. He won’t say no this time.